US stocks ended with moderate gains for the week that ended on 28 June 2013. Stocks rose during the second quarter, but ended June with losses as investors started to come to terms with the potential slowdown in the Federal Reserve's monetary stimulus program. For the second quarter, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.3%, the S&P 500 gained 2.4% and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 4.2%.
For the week, the Dow ended higher by 110.2 points (0.7%) at 14,909.6. Nasdaq ended higher by 46 points (1.4%) at 3,403.25. S&P 500 ended higher by 13.85 points (0.9%) at 1,606.3.
On Monday, the stock market began the week on a fitful note as rising interest rates at home and falling equity markets abroad conspired to keep the major averages in negative territory throughout the day. Overseas, the drop in China was attributed to a growing sense of angst that a liquidity crisis and credit crunch is brewing there.
Equities ended Tuesday's session near their highs, but were unable to erase their Monday losses. The S&P 500 climbed 1.0% as all ten sectors ended with gains.
Wednesday began on an upbeat note despite some disappointing economic news. The final first quarter GDP reading was revised down to 1.8% from 2.4%. Typically, revisions to GDP in the third estimate are very minor. The large decline in this report was very unusual and caught all economists by surprise. Most of the downward revision came from consumption in services. In the previous estimate, services spending increased 3.1%. That was revised down to 1.7% growth and contributed 0.6 percentage points less to GDP growth. Stocks received this news in stride as sluggish growth suggests the Federal Reserve is less likely to withdraw its support from the markets.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 settled higher by 0.6% as nine sectors posted gains. Equities were off to the races at the sound of the opening bell, aided by the personal income report, which pointed to an increase of 0.5% in May. The consensus expected personal income to rise 0.2%. Stocks received a secondary boost from the pending home sales report as May sales rose 6.7% (1.5% consensus).
US stocks ended mixed on Friday, 28 June 2013. On Friday, the Dow and the S&P 500 index ended lower, while the Nasdaq Composite eked out a small gain.
The S&P 500 ended Friday down 6.92 points, or 0.4%, at 1,606.28. The Dow dropped 114.89 points, or 0.8% on Friday to end at 14,909.60. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.38 points, or 0.04%, to end at 3,403.25 on Friday.
Equities slipped out of the gate amid weakness in Treasuries. The 10-yr note sold off into the cash session open before erasing most of its losses. The benchmark 10-yr yield ended higher by two basis points at 2.493%.
IBM performed worst among blue chips on Friday, sliding 2.3%. Accenture tumbled 10.3% after its earnings beat was overshadowed by below-consensus revenue as well as downside fourth quarter revenue guidance. Separately, BlackBerry plunged 27.8% after the company reported disappointing first quarter earnings and revenue. In addition, BB10 shipments of 2.7 million disappointed as investors expected BlackBerry to ship about 3.5 million units of its latest device.
On Friday, a disappointing Chicago PMI report for June (51.6 actual, 55.5 consensus, 58.7 prior) contributed to the early weakness among US stocks, but stocks were able to find support shortly thereafter. The session lows coincided with the release of a better-than-expected final University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index (84.1 final, 82.7 consensus, 82.7 preliminary).
Speculation that the end of Federal Reserve stimulus would arrive sooner rather than later hit commodities hard this month.
Crude Oil futures ended a choppy session in negative territory on Friday, 28 June 2013 at Nymex posting a second-quarter decline in the wake of mixed economic data and a rising dollar. Crude for August delivery fell 49 cents, or 0.5%, to end Nymex floor trade at $96.56 a barrel. That trimmed oil's monthly gain to 4.7% and left the contract with a second-quarter fall of around 1%.
Bullion metals ended higher on Friday, 28 June 2013. Gold for August delivery erased an early dip below $1,200 an ounce Friday to end floor trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange at $1,223.70 an ounce, up $12.10, or 1%. September silver rose 92 cents to close at $19.47 an ounce on Friday, but saw a nearly 32% quarterly fall.
Indian ADRs ended mostly higher on Friday. In the IT space, Infosys was down 0.5% and Wipro was up 1.2%. In the Banking space, HDFC Bank was up 2.6% and ICICI Bank was up 1.1%. In other space, Tata Motors was up 1.4%, and Sterlite was up 7.3%.
For the year, the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 are trading higher by 13.8%, 12.7% and 12.6% respectively.
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